Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Pitchers dominate live BP

Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER

Stephen Strasburg faced live hitters today for the first time this spring.

VIERA, Fla. -- It's easy to read too much into spring training performances, especially during this early portion of camp before the games begin. But it was hard not to notice how good several pitchers looked today during the first live batting practice sessions of the year.

Especially Stephen Strasburg.

It's always a treat to watch the big guy take the mound with a real, live batter in the box. Even though these sessions rarely live up the hype because the hitters often just track pitches as they go by and take only a few cursory swing, you can get a pretty good sense of Strasburg's stuff and command when you watch him up close like this.

And how did he look today? Let's ask one of the Nationals who had the opportunity to dig in against him.

"The stuff's nasty, definitely what you want it to be in one of your starters," Tyler Moore said, adding: "Just impressive to see. I'm glad he's on my team."

Strasburg faced four teammates in his live BP session: Moore, Chad Tracy, Roger Bernadina and Chris Snyder. He threw 36 total pitches, 15 of which were greeted with swings. Seven of those swings produced balls that left the batting cage. Five of those landed in fair territory.

Props to Moore, though, for recording the hardest-hit ball of the session: A sharp base hit up the middle.

True enough. Pitchers announce what they're going to throw in advance, so nobody's fooled by a curveball when they expected a fastball, or a changeup when they expected a slider.

Even when he knew what was coming, Moore emerged impressed with Strasburg's overall arsenal, particularly his mid-90s sinker.

"It looked like a lefty's slider, almost," Moore said. "I mean, it was nasty. It was hard and late."

Strasburg, true to form, downplayed the significance of his first mound appearance of the year against live hitters.

"It felt good to be back out there," he said. "Everything's starting to come back."

Among the other pitchers who impressed this morning:

-- Drew Storen, who fired off some tough sliders to Bryce Harper, Adam LaRoche, Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman (though the last two only tracked pitches, never taking the bat off their shoulder).

-- Ross Detwiler, who recorded one of the morning's few swing-and-misses, getting Moore to flail away at a sinker down and away.

-- Gio Gonzalez, who was his usual boisterous self. Despite strong encouragement from Steve McCatty to wrap up his session after hitting his pre-determined pitch count, Gonzalez insisted on throwing two more pitches (one curveball, one fastball). "I told Cat: 'If the arm's going the arm's going,'" the lefty explained.

My favorite moment came when Chad Tracy was facing Detwiller. Det blew a pitch past Tracy at the knees. Tracy came around the cage straight to McCatty and appeared to say that was good, then point out the location and roll his eyes with a that is hardly fair look. McCatty just smiled since he had witnessed the pitch.

Expecting Gio to "explain" or "come clean" about his tweets is like asking someone when he stopped beating his wife. If Gio actually did meet Bosch or if he actually did take the legal substances obtained from the clinic, a witness could come forward and state that. But if he indeed has never met Bosch and did not take those substances himself (say, perhaps, because they were for his father) there is absolutely no way he can ever prove that. Innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.

Museum was great. I wish we had more time. I think to truly enjoy it, one should reserve two days for the museum itself. One day just for second floor that is all about history of the game. Second day for third flood and the gallery.

For fans, even two days may not be enough. Unbelievable place! I would recommend going in off-season, just be prepared for weather.

MicheleS: from your last post. Make sure you bubble wrap the J.Walker blue that you are bringing Adam and Davey. If there is any left, we can share on April 1st!! (ha, ha). Seriously you and Scooter and all the others have fun!!

Faraz: I am just glad you had a great time and I agree that off-season is the way to go. The colors two years ago were spectacular in Oct. Of course Oct. from now on will be reserved for the playoffs so I guess if we go again it will either be Nov. or March.

I did not take a picture of it but there was a PED note before everyone entered the 'baseball records' room. it is not exactly a room, just part of 3rd floor next to aaron's exhibit. before entering it, you can see a PED note. I can't remember what exactly that said.

One other interesting thing I noticed was the quote from Johnny bench about big red machine, how they thought they would never lose a game at that time. they did win 2 WS and four pennants. That was when only two teams from each league made it to playoffs(more rounds, more chances of not making WS). I am just saying that Nats have not reached that level yet so we should check our expectations and careful with that 'world series or bust' slogan.

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About the Author

Mark Zuckerman has covered the Nationals since the franchise arrived in D.C. He's been a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America since 2001 and is a Hall of Fame voter. Email mzuckerman@comcastsportsnet.com.